So my fiancé has a friend who recently had surgery. The friend has been out of work for a little bit. He decided, the friend, to sell prepared food meals. My fiancé ordered two meals from him for dinner tomorrow. I said to him, this is why it’s so important us to save. You never know what might happen.

I have a family friend in his 70s who is going to be evicted, he has diabetes and goes to dialysis twice a week. He never paid into SS, always worked under the table. Again, a prime example as to why I want to get my finances in order, you just never know. Plus if I had it together I could help both of these individuals.

Checked out my habit tracker and I have 12 days so far of no spending. The cool thing is I should meet and surpass my goal of 15 days.

This week is pay day, I should be sending off the April mortgage, and May HOA. We got the new electric bill and it went up. Not sure how or why but I need to figure out how to decrease this baby. I signed up for auto pay for the water, this drives me nuts because I never get the bill until after the fact. I’ll be canceling this.

If things keep trucking the way they should/are, I would have broke even with the grocery budget, I’m so excited to meet this goal. I’m usually over.

Other than these few miscellaneous items, I’m doing okay. Spending is down as well as debts this month and my net worth is doing a very slow, and I do my very slow shift from negative to positive. Slow and steady wins the race 🐢

I do have one more thing to report. I have a friend who just can’t seem to keep a job. She’s very outspoken and is one of the most helpful people I know. I’ve shared with her my journey paying off my debt, she listens but is not interested, I wish she would join me. Please keep her in prayer, she’s in need of a job desperately.

Found a great podcast, NPR LIFE Kits. Here the host talks about getting out of debt, goals and life. I absolutely love it, the only problem is, there’s four episodes.

One thing that was mentioned, is to celebrate when you achieve little goals to reward your self. I thought yay! Once I pay off CC9 💳 I’m going to do something, I don’t know what but something. I’ve been saving for this day, because I know CC10 💳 won’t be paid off until the end of of year.

I’m so stressed about these CCs 💳 and limiting my spending but what’s strange is I also love it, go figure. Just think, January 2020 I’ll only have these stupid student 👩🏾‍🎓 loans and the house 🏡 . I originally set the goal of five years debt free but looks more like 10. I’m okay with that, I’ll be in my mid 50s.

I’ve decided that if I don’t get a raise at my year anniversary, I’ll just look for another job in December. That will give me close to two years in management and I can really bump my salary. I love my job and my boss but the salary is extremely low. I won’t rush though, the goal is to be in the 90s close to home, with little travel.

SO news, I almost fell out of my chair this evening when he came home with actual groceries. Usually he buys junk. He had a pack of pork chops, chicken 🍗 , bread 🍞 , cereal 🥣, drinks 🥤, fruit 🍉 and snacks 🍪. I’m usually the one buying the groceries and I told him last week Thursday or Friday he needed to chip in. My grocery fund was out and I wasn’t buying anything else. As far as the bills, he’s stayed in track with paying, so far so good. 🤞🏾

My mother drives me absolutely nuts. This woman will make a great day go far left in two seconds.

She calls, doesn’t say hello, how are you, zilch. She just starts yelling in the phone. I have a headache 🤕, today we buried my dad’s girlfriend, I took a nap 💤 and I’ve been dreaming about her all day, my head is pounding. To answer the phone to screams is enough to make me want to just hang up on her. She had a document that needed to be signed, she ask me to sign, there’s two signature lines and I signed only one, you would have thought I yanked her teeth out 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️. The woman is miserable. I’d love to have a relationship with her but she makes it extremely difficult. I pray that I’m not like this when I get older.

All I can do is pray for her.

Different note, we got the house rented, I can’t wait to collect the $150, my portion, every month so that I can throw it at the credit card 💳 debt.

I got the refund check from my insurance company, I switched to Geico, saving me, $60 bucks a month. My mom wanted me to give her the check. I’m not going into details but I’ll say this, any time you get any one money from anything she expects a portion. Nope I’m adding the $101 to my CC once the check clears.

In different news I did not track my expenses all of last year, so my MSMoney software was all over the place. I just started a new one, I hope I keep up with it.

I also created a new habit tracker using, Google. I love filling in these little boxes, I find that it keeps me motivated. I added updating MSMoney to the list.

There was a time if I forgot to use a coupon I would say never mind, but I went back into Walmart for my $1 on Act. Lol

No spend day today, I’m excited and yet anxious. I want to take what I’ve saved in the sinking fund for vacation/fun and throw at my CC.

I’ve been saving to celebrate a small win, it’s been almost two years and I haven’t done anything fun per se. A part of me says CC debt, while another says, hold off until June and do something fun. I really want this debt gone.

Other news, when you’re on a budget you try new things. Today was the first day I made beef 🥩 stew. It was absolutely delicious. I bought the McCormick crockpot package, added onions, carrots 🥕, celery and potatoes 🥔.

This weekend I’m going to tackle the washing machine, I’ll keep you all posted.

Last night I was unable to update my planner but plan on doing so today. March goal is to get CC9 down to $3,000. I really wanted this sucker payed off by April but with the reduction in taxes (refund) that I didn’t not anticipate nor am I complaining, it pushes the pay off to late May/June. I’m okay with that because, I have pretty much averaged about a grand a month (pay down) on this card 💳 . At the rate I’m going I should have both credit cards 💳 paid off by October, and then I can finally tackle my student loans.

On my way home yesterday, I realized that God has been faithful to me, and I’m so thankful. Since I started this journey, I’ve been tithing. I’ve never did this before and since I have, I haven’t freaked out about expenses. Things pop up and boom 💥 I can pay it. No sweat off my back. We finally got the rental property rented, that’s an extra $150 my way, and I can throw it at my CC debt. I think Hod finally blessed us with a tenant since I’m managing His money properly. It just feels great

Yesterday my dad’s long time girlfriend passed away. She was such an amazing woman, I always wished he had married her. I’m just glad she’s not suffering, she doesn’t deserve that.

Financial news
I cashed out $5 on Receipt Hog 🐷, and I added to my CC debt, every little bit helps.

Yesterday I went to the dentist for a filling 🦷, $200. I was so ticked off you have no idea. One, because I had to spend $200 and secondly my funds from my HSA through my employer has not been deposited. The payroll coordinator is a nitwit, I’ll have to get with her today. I did pay cash, and know that I can get the money back but it’s just the principle.

Lastly, we got the rental house rented, I’ll get an extra $150 a month that I can add to my snowball. It’s not my property I just manage it.

I’m in a facebook group that challenges us to save money. This week we were to recreate a restaurant recipe. Tonight I made a sirloin steak 🥩. This was the first time ever, and it turned out great. Though it wasn’t a restaurant recipe I think I pulled it off.

I bought the steak at a discounted rate at Walmart, cost, $4.64. I already had rice, and my local grocery store 🏬 had salad BOGO, so I had a bag from last week.

I basically seasoned the steak with some steak seasoning I had already. I then left it in the fridge, in a ziplock, for a day. I added a little olive oil, and butter to the pan. I fried both sides for about ten minutes, then wrapped in aluminum foil, placed in the oven until my thermostat read, about 160. This was so delicious! Even the SO liked it. We had Olive Garden salad 🥗 dressing so the salad was amazing.

Overall this meal for two cost me about $6 total, winning.

Tomorrow I’m preparing chicken wingettes I got from Walmart I think for at $1.65, I know it’s less than $2. We have left over rice 🍚, and I’ll make another salad. Basically a $2 meal, can’t beat that.

Financial news, I cashed in my points on Receipt Hog 🐷 for $5, I’ll be adding this to the CC 💳

Finished up my taxes and I’m getting a whopping $750. I’m glad I don’t owe. I thought for sure I would have had to pay, especially since I got the money from my dad’s house.

So many people I know have to pay this year. I’ll be throwing all of it to the snowball.

Other news, I’m excited because my $608 payment hit my CC, total paid this month was just over $1300. I couldn’t help but wonder, what if I was throwing this at my student loans. I’m going to start looking for a second job again

I was talking to my mom this morning, she’s complaining that my 17 year old cousin, her neice, is not saving the money she’s receiving from social security after her mom died. I tried explaining to her that, if you’re not taught how to manage, then you won’t. She thinks telling you to save is enough. She has four children and all of us are bad with money. Three of her kids has lost a home, and one filed bankruptcy. She really upset me, because I’m late in the game and feel like no one taught me.

Today, I paid $608.65 on CC9, it feels greaaaaaaatttttttt! New balance is $3900.

I really thought I was going to struggle with this CC but God has allowed me to push through.

In different news my crazy brother started up again. I told my attorney that I’m not paying any other legal fees so what ever he wanted to do he can. Prior to my dad dying, I spoke with my siblings about putting a AC unit in the house, to bring dad home on hospice, and dad expressed he wanted to go home. The normal cost was over $5000 but we got a break because we paid cash. My brother subpoena the bank and saw the withdrawal. Um (I had power of attorney) like I told my attorneys all talked about and agreed. The ac was put in and three days later dad came home and died. He can give me the unit, I’ll put the money back but once dad dies the money is mine since I’m the beneficiary.